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News - page 1050

Google paid Apple $1 billion to keep its search bar on the iPhone

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Got a new iPhone? Set it up right.
Breaking news: There's big money in search.
Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Android
Breaking news: There's big money in search. Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Android
Breaking news: There’s big money in search. Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Android

Android and iOS may be mortal enemies in some ways, but Google clearly realizes the value of having Apple’s hundreds of millions of customers use its search engine.

So much so, in fact, that in 2014 Google paid Apple a massive $1 billion to keep its search bar on the iPhone.

Apple TV’s new ad animates the future of television

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Apps are how you get your content now on Apple TV.
Apps are how you get your content now on Apple TV.
Photo: Apple

The Apple TV future of television is apps, says Apple. Whether you’re sitting down to watch The Simpsons on Fox, Game of Thrones on HBO, or racing your buddies in Asphalt 8, these days it’s a good chance you’re using some sort of app.

You’re definitely app-ing it up if you’re using Apple’s latest hockey-puck device, which brought games and media apps to the big screen not too long ago.

The latest ad for the device, up on YouTube now, highlights all the good stuff with a cleverly animated Apple TV. Check it out.

3D-printed Apple Watch stand is Mac-tastic

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3D-printed-Apple-Watch-stand-Mac
Wait until you see the rest of it.
Photo: Erich Styger

Some intrepid makers have put their 3D printers to work making cool, retro-themed Apple Watch stands. Specifically, they’re creating ones shaped like Apple’s early, beloved desktop computers like the 128K.

It makes sense, really. The Apple Watch shows the time in big green letters when it’s on its side in Nightstand Mode, and green was basically the only color those monitors were capable of displaying. So that’s where these creators are taking their inspiration for some sweet places to hang their Apple Watches.

WATCHe app makes Apple Watch look oldfangled

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WATCHe app
WATCHe lets you turn your Apple Watch into a mechanical timepiece. Kind of.
Photo: Evan Killham/Cult of Mac

A new app for your fancy Apple Watch delivers a super-cool and stylish education on the inner workings of actual watches.

The free app, called WATCHe, shows you the time. Obviously, your Apple Watch can already do that on its own, but the app ups the class by simulating the gears, cogs, springs and movements of an analog watch. And it might actually teach you something.

You’ll waste 3.5 days of your life untangling Apple headphones

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EarPods aren't going wireless in 2016.
EarPods aren't going wireless in 2016.
Photo: Buster Hein/Cult of Mac

This one factoid is the greatest reason why Apple needs to kill the headphone: Over the course of your life, you’ll spend a total of 3.5 days untangling headphones.

Edward Aten decided to dive into the math of how much time is wasted in frustration as you endlessly untangle your Apple EarPods. Depending on your listening habits, you may spend up to 32 seconds a day solving the headphone cord puzzle, which adds up ton of wasted seconds over a 38 year span.

New app turns your iPhone into mobile podcasting studio

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Phone in your podcast (no kidding)  with the app ZCast.
Phone in your podcast (no kidding) with the app ZCast.
Photo: Zula

You don’t need a high-frequency antenna or FCC license to be a broadcaster in the 21st century. Anyone can have a podcast – well, that is, anyone with the technical know-how and money for equipment, such as a good microphone, to produce their work.

A company called Zula wants to eliminate what might be the last barrier for the DIY media star. It launched an iPhone app called ZCast, which allows users to produce an audio podcast anywhere with just an iPhone or Mac computer.

Your heart rate sets the pace of Massive Attack’s new album

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Massive Attack fans, take note.
Massive Attack fans, take note.
Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac

Massive Attack just jumped ahead of the curve with a new app called Fantom Sensory Music. It uses your iPhone camera, motion sensors, location data and even the heart rate from your Apple Watch to remix one of four new tracks from the trip-hop collective that hasn’t had an album out since 2010.

The app itself is a trippy, almost spooky black and white affair that will have you listening to the tracks as you point the camera in all directions, shake your iPhone, and jog in place to raise your heartbeat. Or, at least, that’s what I was doing.

Face palm, bacon, water polo and 71 other emoji may be coming to iOS 10

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Some of the new emoji in Unicode 9.0.
Some of the new emoji in Unicode 9.0.
Photo: Emojipedia

iOS 10 may come with a big batch of new emoji, including pictograms for things like shrimp, croissant, owl, wrestlers, a bunch of hand gestures, a shrug emoticon and more.

The Unicode Consortium has recently accepted the updated Unicode 9 emoji set that contains as many as 74 new emoji that companies like Apple and Google will be able to add to their software keyboards. The consortium will make a final determination on which emojis to add later this year, with the release of Unicode 9.0 set for June 2016. That’s pretty good timing for Apple which is expected to unveil iOS 10 at WWDC in June, with a public launch scheduled for the fall.

Here’s the full list of new emoji:

Exploding Kittens iOS game is absolutely claw-some

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Boom goes the kitty.
Boom goes the kitty.
Photo: Exploding Kittens

I’d imagine it’s difficult to bring a beloved tabletop card game to iOS without losing something in the translation, but Exploding Kittens has found the trick.

Created by gaming veterans Elan Lee and Shane Small, and illustrated by internet cartoonist The Oatmeal (Matthew Inman), Exploding Kittens is like Russian Roulette, only with detonating felines. The game is fairly simple, but it has something not many gaming apps include these days: you’ll play with other people in the same room as you.

Even better, the devs have made all the in-app purchases (extra decks, new avatars) free as a launch special over the next four days. You don’t want to miss out on all the extra fun now, do you?

Cherie Blair thinks Apple needs to hire more women

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Cherie Blair, women's rights advocate and wife of a former British prime minister, chides Apple for its lack of diversity.
Cherie Blair, women's rights advocate and wife of a former British prime minister, chides Apple for its lack of diversity.
Photo: HuffPostRise

Apple CEO Tim Cook continues to take fire over the company’s lack of diversity, the mostly white, male makeup of management described by one investor last year as a “bit too vanilla.”

Women’s rights activist Cherie Blair chose words Wednesday with a little more bite. The British barrister and wife of the former prime minister Tony Blair called Cook “so shortsighted” in Apple’s seemingly less-than-urgent effort to add more women to leadership.

Proposed law could ban Apple from selling iPhones in California

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The iPhone isn't ditching LCD screens.
Designed by Apple in California. Just not for sale there.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Apple could be banned from selling iPhones on its home turf of California if a new bill banning unbreakable encryption is passed.

Called bill 1681, the proposed law was put forward by California assembly member Jim Cooper, who wants any smartphone sold in California after July 1, 2015 to be “capable of being decrypted and unlocked by its manufacturer or its operating system provider.”

Is iOS 9.3 Night Shift toggle coming to Control Center?

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This official Apple image might prove Night Shift will be part of Control Center.
This official Apple image might prove Night Shift will be part of Control Center.
Photo: Apple

For our money, Night Shift is one of the coolest additions to iOS 9.3 beta 1. In fact, it could be the most important UI/UX improvement iOS has added in years.

Even the guys Apple ripped off to come up with the feature are cool with it. But it could get even better before iOS 9.3 is finally released to the general public.

The future of UI for iOS 10 … or iOS 20?

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This video has lots of great ideas about how iOS 10's UI should work.
This video has lots of great ideas about how iOS 10's UI should work.
Photo: Cult of Mac

A lot of “next-gen iPhone” concepts are pretty crappy. Whimsical fancies that have nothing to do with the reality of industrial design. And hey, that’s true of this iPhone 7 concept, which imagines an edge-to-edge display that totally ditches a physical home button. You will not see an iPhone like this anytime in the near future.

But that’s not to say the concept isn’t cool. Because eventually, Apple will release a full-screen iPhone. And when it does, this concept has a lot of cool ideas about how future iOS UIs will work, once the hardware catches up.

Foxconn wants an even bigger slice of the iPhone 7 pie

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iPhone 6s
Foxconn could be acquiring the company which builds iPhone displays.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Foxconn is looking to take over more of the iPhone manufacturing process as it has offered ¥625 billion ($5.3 billion) to acquire Japanese manufacturer Sharp, which currently manufactures displays for Apple devices.

Apple opening R&D facility in hotbed for driverless car research

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2016-01-20-10-52-01-411 Legget
Apple is opening an exciting new R&D facility.
Photo: Colliers

Apple may not spend the same percentage of its revenue on research and development as rivals like Google, Facebook and Qualcomm, but that’s not stopping it from opening new offices dedicated to R&D projects.

The latest of these is based in Canada, with Apple apparently leasing space at a Kanata office complex as a way of establishing a presence in Ottawa. And for those hoping for an Apple Car, that location may turn out to be a significant one.

Concept ad gets us revved up for the Apple Car

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Screen Shot 2016-01-21 at 10.56.35
Better start saving now.
Photo: ConceptsiPhone

Apple building an alleged Apple Car is supposedly an “open secret” in the automotive industry, but even if it’s true we’re still a few years away from actually seeing it.

That’s too long for the folks at Luca Wrede and ConceptsiPhone, who have taken it upon themselves to create a tantalizing 2020-era concept ad showing an Apple Car with Apple Watch and iPhone integration, plus the Apple Maps, Safari, and other software features we’d expect.

You may not be able to get your check book out just yet, but you can watch it below.

Apple will open Europe’s first iOS App Development Center in Italy

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Apple has lost its third appeal for ownership of the term App Store in Oz. Photo: Apple
Apple is using Italy to test drive its new concept.
Photo: Apple

Apple constantly talks about how many jobs its created through the App Store, and it’s putting its money where its mouth is by creating Europe’s first iOS App Development Center in Italy — designed to give students the practical skills and training necessary to help them develop apps for the iPhone and iPad.

Why you should upgrade your older iPhone to iOS 9.2.1

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iOS 9.2.1 vs 8.4.1 speedtest
Aaaaaaaand ... go.
Photo: iApple Bytes

Some informal testing reveals that if you’re still rocking an old iPhone, you should probably upgrade to iOS 9.2.1.

iApple Bytes put three different models of older iPhones — the 4s, 5 and 5s — up against each other in a variety of tests designed to see which of them was faster starting up, using apps and running Siri, Apple’s digital assistant. Half were running the brand-new iOS 9.2.1, which arrived yesterday, and half were still on iOS 8.4.1, which has been around since August 2015.

You can see their results below in iApple Bytes’ series of videos.

VR porn partnership takes viewing out of your hands

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VR goggles by Florian Pircher vr porn
I mean, we don't know for sure that this mannequin head isn't watching porn, do we?
Photo: Florian Pircher/Pixabay

Two high-tech companies are joining forces for the latest development in immersive VR porn: goggles plus machines.

The partnership is between virtual-reality porn producer BaDoinkVR and “teledildonics” maker Kiiroo. And once you get past the basic idea of it, it still sounds super weird. But that’s just kind of how the future works. The deal will allow BaDoink’s content to sync up with one of Kiiroo’s “personal devices” to create an experience so authentic that the companies assume you will forget about all of the fancy mechanical rigs you’ve attached to yourself.

Chrome is about to load the web even faster

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Chrome
Chrome's new data compression will make for faster web browsing.
Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Android

Users of Google Chrome on both the desktop and mobile should see a speed improvement soon when it comes to loading web pages. A Google engineer confirms that a new type of data compression is ready to ship, with the next release of Chrome set to be the first browser with the new technology baked in.

The improved compression engine, dubbed Brotli, is said to be up to 26 times faster than the current solution, Zopfli.

Paws and check out how cute this game is

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Paws game
Oh no, our feelings! Why are swans so cruel?
Photo: Might and Delight

It’s been a while since we’ve seen a game that looked as simultaneously adorable and mysterious as Paws, but here it is.

The upcoming title, which will drop on both Mac and PC March 24, puts you in the role of a sweet, lost lynx cub trying to find its way back home. And that sounds really sad, but the graphics in today’s announcement trailer are so charming that we could probably power through the pain.

Check it out below.